UVM Meeting-July 5th, 2010

To support the conversation, please, bring examples of student work (from your individual content areas, the Uganda Unit, or any other work this year) that you feel will offer opportunities to explore these questions. We encourage you to select examples that reflect a range of student engagement. Please choose samples independently of your teammates. There are no right or wrong samples; they are only to help us talk about student engagement.

Typed Notes

Outlines for both in class notes and homeworks are available to be “picked up” on a shared network drive. Students copy the document and paste it into their personal network folder before typing their notes onto the document and saving it in their social studies folder.

East Africa vs. United States Stereotype Powerpoint

In order to highlight the differences and similarities between people in East Africa and people in the United States, students were asked to find at least five pictures of certain topics in both the United States and East Africa (for example, happiness, poverty, crime, wealth, food, sports). These pictures were saved in a common folder and put together by the teacher into a powerpoint presentation that was shown to the class.

Setera/Sheppard Software

Students begin most days with a geography “warm up” using either the program setera or the website Sheppard Software, which requires students to match a name with the appropriate country/region/geographic feature/etc.

I Am From 

As an introduction in September, students wrote “I am from” poems reflecting on their past, their present and their hopes for the future. Students were given the option to include pictures and music, and to narrate their poems using programs including, “Voice Thread" or "Photostory".

Empire Simulation

For a unit on Ancient Mesopotamia, Students were placed in different “clans” and took part in a simulation tracking their group’s development from being a tribe to becoming an empire. Each day, groups would track their progress and compete with one another for land and resources on a computer generated map shown daily on the smart board. Done this way, students could easily move their “armies,” mark when they had built a new Ziggurat/Irrigation System/etc, and add and delete armies when they were killed or captured.

Stereotype Project

Students created a video that was to either prove or disprove a stereotype about American society or culture. Students used programs such as Windows Movie Maker, Photostory, Powerpoint or Voice Thread to pair images, videos, narration and music.

Bubbl.us

Students have used this online graphic organizer to organize and re-process information they have learned. For example, students took information from the textbook and a number of homework assignments and synthesized the material through bubbl.us.

East Africa vs. United States Stereotype Powerpoint

In order to highlight the differences and similarities between people in East Africa and people in the United States, students were asked to find at least five pictures of certain topics in both the United States and East Africa (for example, happiness, poverty, crime, wealth, food, sports). These pictures were saved in a common folder and put together by the teacher into a powerpoint presentation that was shown to the class.

You Tube ( and the like…)

While students do not have the rights to access youtube on their personal computers, excerpts from movies/documentaries/etc are often shown on the smartboard and discussed in class.

Berlin Conference

As part of our discussion of the impact of colonization on the continent of Africa, students were given countries and asked to carve up land and the resources that accompanied.  Students then compared their results using the Smartboard against actual events as recorded in their text.

Survey Monkey/Google Forms

Links to surveys or documents that need to be filled out have been posted on the schools homepage so students can easily access them. Results are automatically generated and can be viewed in a variety of ways (per student, per question, per class, etc) This tool has been used for student feedback, recording student information (textbook numbers, for example) or for peer review of each others work.

Online Quizzes

Students took a unit pre-test for the Africa unit and the qualifying test of the national geography bee through an online multiple choice quiz. Again, results were automatically generated and easily viewed in a variety of ways.

Snapgrades:

This is our online grading program.  Student grades, team homework, handouts, and team announcements are all stored in this area.

Team Website

This is a site for parents and students to access team information, academic links, 21st Century Tools, and to celebrate team accomplishments.

Team Teacher Notes and Collaboration

This wiki is used as a collaborative tool for teacher to record meeting notes and plan integrated units.  Lots of important team information is stored here and can be accessed at amy time.

So You Say You Want A Revolvution

Students on two 7/8 teams were assigned roles as Patriots, Loyalists, and Moderates during a re-enactment around the issue of Independence.  Students were asked to use one of three "wiki" sites to plan strategy, answer questions, and promote their agenda.  This site was initially lauched using "WetPaint".